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Former director of communications at Number 10 Alastair Campbell has told ITV's Daybreak that his "anger" with Damian McBride has nothing to do with his new book "which will be forgotten in no time" but by his "utterly despicable behaviour" while in government.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has accused Gordon Brown's former aide Damian McBride of being "out of control".

Cooper, whose husband Ed Balls was a key Brownite, told Sky News' Murnaghan programme: "I think this is ... about a kind of politics that really is appalling, that we should never go back to.

"It is something that happened some years ago, but I think it's a sign of how much the Labour Party has changed, the very different climate, the very different way in which Ed Miliband is managing things and operating things now, that's a good thing.

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former spin doctor, has accused Damian McBride of breaking the law by leaking the content of confidential documents from government computers, raising the possibility of a police investigation, according to the Sunday Times (£).

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Gordon Brown considered enforcing a curfew and putting troops on the streets as the severity of the banking crisis began to sink in, his former spin doctor has revealed.

Damian McBride said the discussion of the drastic measures came in the days after the collapse of Northern Rock in 2008 and the night before he announced his public bailout of the banks, fearing a "total meltdown of the financial system of the Western world".

In an extract of his book, serialised in the Daily Mail, Mr McBride wrote that Mr Brown said to him: "You don't understand...If the banks are shutting their doors, and the cashpoints aren't working, and people go to Tesco and their cards aren't being accepted, the whole thing will just explode.

"It'll be anarchy. That's what could happen tomorrow. I'm serious, I'm serious... We'd have to think: do we have curfews, do we put the Army on the streets, how do we get order back?"

Labour leader Ed Miliband has been forced to deny any involvement in attempts to smear opponents amid claims that "damaging" emails could have been sent by him to one of the key figures in a plot to attack senior Tories.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has been forced to distance himself from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Damian McBride, his spin doctor, after he confessed to a series of political assassinations on behalf of Mr Brown, according to an interview with The Times (£).

Mr Balls admitted to being part of the damaging "macho" cabal around Mr Brown, but insists that he had no knowledge of “three hideous smears” against John Reid, Charles Clarke and Ivan Lewis and claims that he resisted attempts by Mr Brown to undermine Alistair Darling, then Chancellor.

Former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell, who served in Government under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, told BBC News that while she was "sure" Ed Miliband was aware of the activities of the then-prime minister's special adviser, it would not damage his position now.

Labour leader Ed Miliband knew about the activities of disgraced former spin doctor Damian McBride, according to Dame Tessa Jowell.

The former Cabinet minister, who served in Government under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, told BBC News that extracts from Mr McBride's book Power Trip about the "malign and awful" briefings against senior Labour figures were "truly shocking".

Dame Tessa insisted that while she was "sure" Mr Miliband, who was a close ally of Mr Brown, was aware of the activities of the then-prime minister's special adviser, it would not damage his position now.

"One of the most important things that Ed Miliband has done is to outlaw this kind of briefing in his shadow cabinet," she added.